Lowcountry Oyster Festival

A few weekends ago Dave and I headed over to the Lowcountry Oyster Festival, which is apparently the world's biggest oyster roast and includes beer, vendors, and live bands.

I'd never been to one before, but I was certainly looking forward to an afternoon of eating! I had heard some bad things about this particular event before we went, like it's crowded, they've run out oysters very early at past events, and it's not all that fun. Thankfully, I found most of those negative reports to be wrong. While it was crowded, we got there early enough to find a spot of grass and shuck our oysters (1/2 a bucket for Dave, 1 1/2 buckets for me (only after I made sure they were fully cooked/the shells were open)!).

In addition to oysters (that hadn't run out by the time we left around 2), several Charleston-area restaurants also had food stands there. We ended up with seafood gumbo and hush puppies from AW Shucks and both were tasty!

Overall, I had fun and it was a nice way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon here in Charleston. My only complaint is that the $20 admission fee gets you exactly nothing, other than admission. You still have to buy tickets for $2 per ticket and buckets of oysters were $12 each, so we ended up spending as much on food tickets as we had on the admission tickets. Other area festivals (so I've heard) give you all you can eat in the price of your admission fee. But even so, those oysters were delicious and I feel just a bit more Southern now having attended my first oyster roast and shucking a few buckets.